Access Across America: Transit 2014

About the study

This study examined the accessibility to jobs by transit in 46 of the 50 largest (by population) metropolitan areas in the United States. It is the most detailed evaluation to date of access to jobs by transit, and it allows for a direct comparison of the transit accessibility performance of America’s largest metropolitan areas.

Rankings were determined by a weighted average of accessibility, giving a higher weight to closer jobs. The calculations include all components of a transit journey, including “last mile” access and egress walking segments and transfers.

The study's report presents detailed accessibility values for each metropolitan area, as well as detailed block-level maps that illustrate the spatial patterns of accessibility within each area. A separate publication—Access Across America: Transit 2014 Methodology—describes the data and methodology.

In the future, the data presented in this study will be used to complete additional analyses, published periodically. Upcoming reports in the series will explore more detailed aspects of transit accessibility to jobs, including accessibility of jobs of different wage levels and a comparison with accessibility by car.

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What the media are saying...

“From a transit perspective, these maps can also illustrate how small changes in service — a few more buses at rush hour, more frequent connections in the subway — could dramatically alter access to jobs across town.”

“We've seen plenty of stories that measure how big, fast, and effective our transit systems are in the U.S. But for many people, none of that matters unless transit can do one thing: Get them to work. That's why this study by the University of Minnesota is so valuable—it shows which transit systems provide the best access to jobs.”